Writer / Dreamer

What A Beautiful Day!

Yesterday was my Grandma’s funeral. The day started off cloudy and rainy. As a matter of fact I received an emergency alert on my phone for a flash flood warning that was in effect for our area. Wow, I thought “this is just like funeral weather”. I was not looking foward to the day and neither was a family member who spoke and said “this is going to be a sad day”, while we mingle before the service started. Even though we were sad, we didn’t want her funeral to be sad, she didn’t want that.

The night before, I prayed that all of us grandkids would be able to get through when it came time for us to speak. We got through and everything went great. Overall, it was a beautiful and upbeat service. We worshiped, we cried and we laughed. I loved it when the brass band played “When The Saints Go Marching In” we got up and danced, even with tears rolling down our smiling faces. I am happy for her. She made it! She is in heaven, but we’re sure going to miss her.

It’s a beautiful thing when you can attend a funeral knowing for sure that your loved one went to heaven. Before my Grandmother ended up in the hospital (after her massive stroke) she talked about her leaving this earth very often. I talked to one of my cousins and he said that just a month ago my Grandmother told him that she wasn’t going to be here for long. His response was just like ours, “Oh Grandma your going to be here stop saying that”. My Grandma was preparing us for a day that we thought would never come.

She was a lot of woman. She was a wise and discerning woman, a tough and strong woman, a bold and feisty woman. She was also a huge giver but most of all she was a woman of God. Those same qualities are in me also. I am proud to be a part of her. I am proud to be her Granddaughter. I am proud to be a part of the Dugger family. My Aunt spoke at the homegoing service and one of the things she said was that she was so proud to be a “Dugger” she didn’t know what to do with herself (Lol). I really have a beautiful family. I’m talking about the Lawsons, the Kings, the Roysters, the Richmonds and the Duggers. Thank you God for the wonderful body of people you have called to be my family. I am very grateful.

When my Grandmother died there were somethings that she left behind…pieces of herself. She left her mannerisms, her expressions, her strong will and determination, her eyes ( my sister has her eyes), her name, and many other things. These things are found in us…her family. I also want to say that she left the anointing that was placed on her in her life. At the funeral all the fragments of her life was put together and I saw what I needed to see so clearly. I thought to myself, “I want to make an impact on others too, I want to carry on the torch”. I realize that the generation, that taught us to say yes ma’am and yes sir is dying out. There’s about to be a wave of new Grandma’s to carry on the torch….What will they teach this generation? Today I stand taller and walk smarter and talk wiser because of my Grandma and the example she left behind. I want to make a difference, just like she did in many, many, many lives. I want God to be proud of me. I feel like the anointing that God gave her, left her and remained here for someone to claim….I want it; and there’s enough to go around for anyone who wants to go out into the deep.

Lovely things were said about both of my Grandparents. They loved people and had an outreach ministry together. To me they showed how love can out weigh hate. I also want to celebrate the many years that they’ve been together (I believe it’s been around 63 years). You know I’ve been to a couple of weddings this year and I see the correlation between weddings and funerals. In the past I’ve accidentally slipped up and called a wedding a funeral and a funeral a wedding. When I think about weddings it makes me think about the death of two individuals coming together in holy matrimony becoming one. When I think about funerals I think about the life of the deceased (the Bride) departing from this earth going on to be in the presence of the Lord (the Groom). I believe that there are only two ways out of marriage and that is divorce and death. At most weddings we hear pastors say till death do us part and we very rarely see couples walk out this lifelong commitment. Instead, we see divorce as being the way of escape for many marriages, even the couples that have the possibility of reigniting what they once had in the beginning. I know so many couples that have ended in divorce but I’m very blessed to see a couple stay together in love for over 60 + years and in death they did part….wow! I remember their last years together; they were so cute, you could tell that they appreciated one another. They were very much in love. I am proud to be their granddaughter.

It rained off and on during the service but when we got to the burial site it stopped and the sun came out. My Grandfather got a kick out of that :)….Wow, her funeral turned out to be more of a celebration…a wedding celebration!

God blessed the day she was born until the day she was laid to rest. Enjoy Grandma! What a beautiful day!

“I have lived more than three scores and ten. I don’t have long now. And when I am gone, don’t weep for me because I will be in a beautiful place with my Lord.” – June Pearline Dugger (June 6, 1931-June 30,2013)